Volodymyr Omelyan held a meeting with George Michalopoulos, Chief Commercial Officer of Wizz Air

Volodymyr Omelyan, the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, held a meeting with George Michalopoulos, the Chief Commercial Officer of Wizz Air. The meeting took place on November 20, 2018 at the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine. Oleksandr Bilchuk, the Chairman of the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine, Daniel Bilak, the Director UkraineInvest and Chief Investment Adviser to the Prime Minister of Ukraine and representatives of Reform Support Team of the Ministry of Infrastructure attended the meeting.

The sides discussed results of the airline’s operations on the Ukrainian market over the past 10 years, and outlined the future prospects.

Volodymyr Omelyan emphasized that expanding the segment of budget air transportation is one of the key tasks that he set himself as the Minister of Infrastructure: “Ukrainians want to travel more and we should give them such an opportunity, first of all, through the expansion of the low-cost carriage segment. The share of low-cost airlines in international flights is already about 30%, and by 2030, it should be at least 50%. The Ministry of Infrastructure is pursuing a rather aggressive policy of cheapening flights for Ukrainians. At present, this “aggression” is causing a change of airlines’ policies, reformation of the market and approval from passengers. Once again, I emphasize that we proceed from the interests of, first of all, the Ukrainian passenger. Moreover, the situation, which is currently on the Ukrainian market, testifies that we are absolutely right”.

George Michalopoulos, the Chief Commercial Officer of Wizz Air thanked to Volodymyr Omelyan, the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, and Oleksandr Bilchuk, the Chairman of the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine for the support and emphasized in the interest of the airline company in expanding its presence in Ukraine.

“We welcome all initiatives aimed at cheapening tickets and expanding the geography of flights for Ukrainians. We strive for low-cost airlines to come to regional airports to make air travel available to every Ukrainian. Moreover, this is our task − to build a network of regional airports. I believe that tomorrow’s meeting of Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine, with the leadership of Wizz Air will outline new perspectives for cooperation, benefits of which will be felt by the Ukrainian passenger,” − the Head of the Ministry added.